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Feeling Stressed, Employees Seek Pay Advances

Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item.

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Thirty-seven percent of HR professionals say employees at their organization have missed work because of a financial emergency in the last 12 months. However, only a quarter of organizations offer their employees financial literacy training for basic budgeting, according to the results of a new survey by the Society for Human Resource Management that was conducted in collaboration with and commissioned by Elevate, a financial services firm.

Half of all HR professionals rated the overall financial health of employees at their organization as just “fair” in the
SHRM/Elevate Employee Financial Stress Survey, which polled a randomly selected sample of SHRM’s membership in May and June 2014.

Fifty percent of the HR professionals also said Millennials (those ages 25 to 34) were the most financially stressed, while 29 percent believe workers in the 35 to 44 age group experienced the most stress related to money.

The results "signal that financial issues could be a growing challenge for employees in many workplaces," according to the report. "Anxiety related to finances could be a growing source of employee stress that has a direct impact on health care costs, absence and productivity. Thus money management strategies, including budgeting and investing, may increasingly be considered as a part of workplace stress management and wellness initiatives."

Offering Help

The most common financial services that organizations offer employees are:

•Retirement planning and consultation (offered by 81 percent of respondents).

Asking for Pay Advances

Nearly three-quarters of HR professionals indicated that offering third-party provider loan products has a positive impact on employees’ overall ability to manage their financial difficulties, and slightly over half reported pay advances having a positive impact.

A majority of HR professionals (53 percent) report that their employees have asked for a pay advance in the last year, while 47 percent say workers have approached a manager or supervisor for personal financial advice in the last 12 months.

However, just 18 percent of respondents provide pay advances, while 19 percent make available access to loan products from a third-party provider through the workplace.

A majority (55 percent) of those that offer pay advances feel that doing so has a positive impact on employees’ ability to manage their financial difficulties.

Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item.